Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of getting to know St. Martin’s member Margaret Ridgeway. This week’s tale comes from conversations she and I had.
Margaret moved to Keller in 2018 with her son and daughter-in-law. They moved from North Carolina, where she was very involved with the choir at her church. One of her fellow choir members found out where she was moving to and said “You have to go to St. Martin’s. My good friend Scot McComas is the rector there!” And so she came to St. Martin’s. She did indeed form a quick friendship with Father Scot, who checked in on her regularly. You see, Margaret has an incurable form of cancer. Incurable, but treatable, and that’s where this tale begins.
From Margaret:
I have been self isolated since the Corona virus began and have not gone out at all. But Tuesday, I had to go to Tex Oncology.
Side note from Anika – this is how she and I became acquainted….we’d gotten a prayer request for her safety as she travelled out, and I was asked to contact her. She was worried both about exposure to the virus, but also that her blood test came back well, so that she did not need to go into the hospital for a blood transfusion. She was delighted to be able to come home, call me, and finish this amusing story!
Back to Margaret:
After spending two hours of being exposed to everything in Tex Oncology, this is how I prepared to re-enter my home:
A bag was left outside the rear door. I took off my shoes, put them in the bag and threw them across the two car garage. Almost to the dumpster.
I opened the back door, entered the laundry room, took off all my clothes and put them in the washing machine set to wash on HOT.
I walked in my nakedness into the hallway to the bathroom. Showered and shampooed my hair and put on clean clothes. That’s it!
My appointment was good news for my blood. I had been eating calves liver to see if it would help and it obviously has. The blood report was good. My blood pressure is the problem for now. At 179/79, that’s high. So that’s my next venture with my primary care. The situation we’re in right now, probably everyone’s blood pressure is up a bit!
Of course, I HAD to ask for Margaret’s recipe for calves liver!
Margaret:
I was having trouble eating it. It comes in a one pound package with 4 or 5 slices. Each slice is sealed in heavy plastic. So what I’ve done is take an edge of a plate & pound that
sucker until it’s double the size.
Slice a large onion and saute that, put it in a bowl and then put the beat up liver into the skillet. It takes so little time to cook.
I like to have mashed potatoes with it, put it on a plate & eat the whole thing with the onions & a thing of apple sauce. Yum!!
Father Pogue called and I told him about the liver…I didn’t know but he’s from Texas. He said, “You don’t realize that this is Liver Country!”
I was raised in Ohio & my mother made liver once a month because she thought we should have it and it was just hideous!
Margaret now faithfully eats her liver and her blood seems to appreciate it. She is a woman in high spirits and is a riot to talk to. I know I didn’t do her story as much justice as when she related it to me.
If ever you have the chance to talk to Margaret, I hope you do! You can find her on Facebook these days. For me, I believe I have found a new friend. She’s so much fun to talk to, and we all could use a little more of that right now!
Please keep these tales coming. You can email me your story at stmartin@stmartininthefields.org, or like Margaret, you can call me and I’ll write up your story. The church’s number rings me at home on my cell. Just call 817-431-2396. Take care everyone!
Tales from the Quarantine – Week 3